The Renku Sessions: Cotton Clouds – Week 9
Welcome to the current renku session. I am John Stevenson and I’ll be your guide for a twenty verse, nijûin renku.
We will be using an on-line list of season words and phrases (kigo) for those verses that require a seasonal reference: https://yths.org/season-word-list/
Here is my short list of verse 9 offerings:
darkness
envelops the day
laborers
Jonathan Alderfer
adolescents
enlisting in the war
that drones on and on
Pamela Garry
the chatbot
thanking me ad nauseam
for my patience
Pamela Garry
right on schedule
history prepares
to repeat itself
Michael Henry Lee
indenting the center
of hamburgers
before cooking
Debbie Feller
a rookie’s
first home run
returned
Richard Straw
tightly folded bills
in the collection plate
on Sunday
Richard Straw
ghost in the pews
crosses itself
a second time
rob barkan
grandma’s smirk
while we search
for the rum
Sharon Ferrante
a caught foul ball
starts a quiet parade
toward the waiting train
Clysta Seney (also thanks, Clysta, for the just for me verse)
another shot
miles wide
of the fairway
Tracy Davidson
smiling
as my AI companion
wishes me a good morning
Melissa Dennison
single malt whisky
and seared scallops
for his 21st birthday
Nancy Brady
in the background
a baseball announcer
calls play-by-play
Margaret Anderson
they question
the Hogwarts
sorting
Wendy C. Bialek
gentle sound
of whisking eggs
awakens my mother
Diana Ming Jeong
everyone dies
at the end but
we keep reading
Devin Wilson
Possibly because I offered a list of potential topics, we had a great variety of possibilities in your offerings. Also, Margaret Anderson’s verse eight gave us quite a lot to work with. The “busker” offered the suggestion of locations for linkage – subway, ballpark. The idea of tipping gives way to automated “thanks.” Teen spirit gives us other images of adolescence and of the passage from it to young adulthood. The unstated but clear image (what I call orbit words) of a cap, bowl or guitar case used by the busker to collect contributions comes back at us in various forms: a nest, a mixing bowl, a church collection plate, the “Hogwarts Sorting Hat” and even as a preparation suggestion for grilling hamburgers. Even the word “attempting” gets some play, with foul balls, a “rookie’s” triumph and another shanked golf shot.
Unfortunately, I guess I didn’t make myself clear enough last week about the idea of music as a linking image. Two images relating to it in such a short renku is a bit edgy. A third image would be over the edge. So, a great many otherwise lovely verses had to be passed over this time just because their linkage was music-related.
Here is my choice for the ninth verse:
everyone dies
at the end but
we keep reading
Devin Wilson
One thought I had (but didn’t state for you) was that it would be good to have a verse without a physical setting. This is something that takes place in the mind or, in one reading, in a book. It says several things, of very different sorts but all true. I take the link to be in consideration of one of the artists most associated with the song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Kurt Cobain is gone, forever a member of the “27 Club.” But every day he is discovered by new listeners. This also gives new life to the concept of “attempting.”
Because I have thought of Kurt Cobain does not mean that this is a third music verse. Equally plausible associations can take one to any number of places. We may be thinking of books or plays. Or we may be thinking of the story of the plowman who is asked to contemplate what he would do if he knew this was the last day of his life. So, to be clear, please do not link through thoughts of Kurt Cobain. Perhaps the most abstract concept of this new verse is “persistence.”
So, here is what we have, so far:
Cotton Clouds (working title)
a pinto colt
canters the meadow
cotton clouds
John Stevenson
muddied boots
on the welcome mat
Jennifer Sutherland
a bounty
of tulips spilling
over the vase
Eavonka Ettinger
the comfort of song
sung together
Anne Fox
the hermit crab’s
new shell glistens
in the moonlight
Sally Biggar
he fell for the sundress
on bare shoulders
Debbie Scheving
sweet nothings
with a hint
of Bengay
Diana Ming Jeong
we tip the busker
for attempting ‘teen spirit’
Margaret Anderson
everyone dies
at the end but
we keep reading
Devin Wilson
This week, we will be working on the tenth verse, completion of which will mark the half-way point in this renku. This will be two lines. It will be a non-seasonal verse, so it must not contain a word or phrase from our list of season words.
Please enter a maximum of five verse-ten offers. The deadline for submission will be midnight, eastern US time on Monday, June 23.
Let’s see what comes next!
John
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